SPRING DRIVING MEANS COPING WITH BLINDING SUNLIGHT, FOG

We all love spring — most of us, anyway — and spring officially arrived last week.

But along with it comes significant challenges for the commuter.

The vernal equinox put the rising sun and setting sun directly in the eyes of drivers traveling east-west roads early and late in the day.

It is also the cloudiest season of the year in Southern California, when the late-night-early-morning fog that coastal residents often wake up to thickens and spreads far inland.

Both conditions can make it really hard, if not impossible, for motorists to see.

That point was underscored on March 11, when officers in Temecula said a driver who was momentarily blinded by the setting sunlight ran into two women walking in a bicycle lane. Both women were injured and taken to the hospital.

Clearly, spring is a time when we ought to be taking extra precautions.

Of course, this isn’t the only season that has its challenges. In the winter we have to adjust our driving for the rain. In the autumn we have to deal with those crazy Santa Ana winds — and it’s the other time of year when the sun lines up directly east and west.

“They know when these seasons are coming,” said Lt. Greg Negron, who oversees the Temecula Police Department’s traffic enforcement unit. “They should prepare ahead of time.”

In other words, wear sunglasses. Pull the visor down.

Even so, there are still times when the evening or morning sun blasts directly through our windshields and temporarily blinds us. In that situation, Negron advises that a driver take his or her foot off the gas immediately and slow down, while maintaining course and adjusting the visor to block the sun’s rays.

“In a 45 mph zone, that may be 20 mph,” he said.

If the blindness continues, stop, he said.

Similarly, in blinding fog, drivers ought to slow down, said Officer Jake Sanchez, a spokesman for the California Highway Patrol in San Diego.

“Whenever we have fog, people continue to drive at 65 mph when they can see only 20 feet in front of their bumper,” Sanchez said.

That’s not particularly smart, he said, given that at 65 mph it takes a driver about 140 yards — a football field and a half — to stop. It takes a second and a half to recognize a major hazard and apply the brakes.

Both in blinding sunlight and fog, Sanchez advised motorists, if possible, to leave plenty of space around them — a “space cushion.”

“You don’t want to have a car right behind you, a car right in front of you, a car on your left or a car on your right,” he said. “You want to give yourself an out and give yourself another lane to go into, if you have to.”

If you can, avoid driving at all in situations in which visibility is compromised, Sanchez said.

But for sure, slow down.

“People continue at the same speeds,” Sanchez said. “And that’s when they get into trouble.”